Three days after a fire in Bhubaneswar’s SUM hospital killed 21 of its patients, its owner Manoj Ranjan Nayak was on Thursday sent to three-day police custody. He was earlier in the day arrested by the city police.

Nayak and his wife Saswati Das were the trustees of the Shiksha O’ Anusandhan Charitable Trust which managed the hospital. (OTV Image)

Three days after a fire in Bhubaneswar’s SUM hospital killed 21 of its patients, its owner Manoj Ranjan Nayak was on Thursday sent to three-day police custody. He was earlier in the day arrested by the city police.

Nayak and his wife Saswati Das were the trustees of the Shiksha O’ Anusandhan Charitable Trust which managed the hospital.

Hospital’s superintendent Pusparaj Samantasinghar and three other officials have already been arrested by the police earlier.
On Wednesday, the police had raided Nayak’s office of Nayak and seized vital documents.

During the raid, Nayak’s house was locked and the mobile phone switched off.

Nayak may face more trouble with the Special Investigating Team of black money asking the Enforcement Directorate to check trust’s financial transactions over the years.

The hospital has already been served notice by Khurda district administration, asking why why it should not be sealed under Clinical Establishment Act, since it did not have the required fire safety certificate.

Yesterday, Union Health Minister JP Nadda had said that all those responsible for the tragedy would be should be punished.
While pointing out that Centre would take necessary steps for better treatment of the patients, he had said that the state government had constituted panels for conducting inquiry into the tragedy.

Same day, kin of the victims who lost their lives in the fire tragedy protested outside the hospital demanding jobs and compensation.